You forgot something, Amel, but Hubric didn’t. How do you open a cage?
“Ah! Here it is!” Hubric said, pulling the fallen guard out from under Kyrowat and tugging a leather strap from around his neck. “The key!”
I grabbed it from his hand and hurried to the first cage. Eluci was pressed against the door.
“Hurry!” she said, as I fumbled for the right key on the ring. “They took the others – Leng, Ashana, Peln.”
Around me, the buzz of the Sentries was making my hair stand on end, but they were the only ones standing between us and our enemies.
I’m still here ...
And my mighty dragon, of course. I found the key and slipped it into the lock, quickly opening the door. Eluci stumbled out of it and down to the ground and I shoved the keys in her face.
“Take the keys! I need to go stop this madness!”
“The war?” she looked aghast, as if I’d gone crazy in the hours since she’d seen me.
“No, what it’s doing to the dragons. Free the prisoners!”
I hobbled back to where Hubric was kneeling beside his dragon, holding Kyrowat’s snout in his hands. “Whatever magic this is – he can’t stay like this forever. It will kill him.”
I gripped his shoulder until he turned to me. “I’m going to find a way to stop it.”
He nodded.
“If I don’t make it back ...” I paused. “Leng is in the Observatory.” I pointed to the place where it hung beneath Dominion City. “He’s a prisoner there. So is Ashana.”
Hubric nodded, gripping my hand on his shoulder. “Go fix this, apprentice.”
I laughed. How long ago had it been since the day he adopted me as his apprentice and gave me this crutch.
It had only been a few months ago.
It felt like a lifetime.
“And don’t die!” he called as I mounted Raolcan carefully and we rose, again, into the sky.
Chapter Nineteen
Look! Do you see Starie?
I scanned the field of battle as we rose into the air. The battle raged on two fronts, the Dusk Covenant versus the Lightbringers at the very edge of the base of Sky City, and our Baojang allies versus the Dusk Covenant below Dominion City. Despite the sudden chaos born of dragons falling from the sky, the armies were already regrouping. A red flag unfurled from the Observatory – a sign of what, exactly? I didn’t know. It wasn’t hard to find Starie. I looked for the most chaotic spot of the battle. There! A nimbus of black light circled her.
The falling dragons had slowed her in her quest to meet Savette on the field of battle. Both of them were diverting from their paths, trying to move around fallen or dead dragons. I swallowed at the sight of an entire squad of soldiers climbing up on the rib cage of a White, slashing and hacking at those who passed below, as if the dragon were only higher ground and not a living thing.
There was something strange about the soldiers that Starie encountered on her way to fight Savette. They seemed confused ... disoriented.
She’s doing the same thing to them that she did to the dragons. She doesn’t have the Pipe to reach them all at once, but she uses the reflection in their eyes to amplify her power and to entangle them.
I swallowed. Who could resist a magic like that?
Savette can. Her eyes are so full of light that no darkness can enter there, and no reflection can be stolen from her.
What would happen when they met face to face? Would the world end then?
I doubt it. The world has seen evil and good meet before.
Before they met, I needed to get to her. We needed that Pipe. If the dragons were left like this, many more would die. I would not stand by and watch my friends die for no reason – and that included my dragon friends.
In that case, I need you to trust me.
I always trust you, Raolcan. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there when you were hurt. I’m sorry that you were taken captive when it should have been my tender care to help you, not the rough chains of enemies! I’m sorry that you’ve lost your eyes to save me.
I’m the worst thing for you, but you keep on loving me.
Amel, my dear girl, my spider. You need to remember something.
He was flying faster than I ever remembered flying so that it took almost all my concentration to hold on. The battlefield blurred beneath us.
What did I need to remember at a moment like this?
You need to remember that you are why I’m here. We’re in this together. Neither of us can succeed alone.
Succeed at what?
Victory. Now, enough of flashing that big heart around. I need you to trust me.
I do trust you!
Take off that lovely scarf that Leng gave you – the one around your waist.
How did he know it was lovely?
Allow me some assumptions. Tie it around your eyes.
Around my eyes? Then how would he fly?
After you tie it on, I’ll have to focus so I can navigate. You’ll hold one of these chains and drop down beside Starie and I’ll tell you what to do. You have to get that Pipe before she realizes that you’re above her. Are you able to do that?
I swallowed. a sour taste filling my mouth. Sweat broke out across my body. I wasn’t really the most athletic person...
You can do it. We’re almost there. Catch this chain!
He whipped his head in a complicated fashion and two of the dangling chains his captors had used to lead him whipped up beside me. I grabbed one of them in shaking hands and tucked it under my thigh to hold it in place while I got ready.
The blur of the armies below slowly came into focus as Raolcan slowed, curving in a spiral. My hand shook as I realized what I was going to do.
Scarf on!
I unraveled the scarf and quickly tied it around my eyes.
Hold on to the chain.
I wiped my hands on my leathers and then gripped it with both hands.
Could I do this?
I wasn’t sure.
You have to. It’s our only chance.
I could hear the chain rattling in my shaking hands, the din of the battle growing louder. Starie was shouting something over the rush of voices.
“Face me, Lightbringer! Face me and show the world that darkness overcomes light! Or are you trying to extend your life by seconds? I will catch you! You cannot run from my power!”
Jump!
I couldn’t ... I couldn’t ... I did!
The air whipped around me and I braced my grip for the impact. Even gripping as hard as I could my whole body jarred when I reached the end of the chain. Could my joints pop loose? It felt like some of them had. I swallowed back a cry, listening for directions.
Left! Reach to your left and grab!
I felt almost as if I had just missed someone.
She can read the edges of your thoughts. Don’t think, do!
I pawed the air with wild abandon. There was a shriek as I grabbed something to my left – hair! I tugged as hard as I could.
Yes! Now let go and feel for the strap around her neck!
I raked my hand across a face, ignoring the cursing and found the strap, gripping it as hard as I could. I felt the leather cord jerk up, and for a moment my arms screamed in pain as I was being pulled upward with one arm and pulling Starie upward with the other. The sockets of my shoulders felt like they were ripping in two.
Then, all at once, the leather cord snapped, and I was swinging back and forth through the air on the end of the chain. I jammed the leather cord into my Dragon Rider leathers before feeling to see if the Pipe was there.
We had it!
I tugged my blindfold off and reached for the chain with my other hand. As I adjusted my grip, light surrounded me and with a clap like a thunderbolt, we were spinning through the air, tumbling end over end, my only link to Raolcan – to life – my grip on that snapping, whipsawing chain.
READ THE LAST CHAPTER of Amel’s story in Dragon School: Ascendant
Behind the Sce
nes:
USA Today bestselling author, Sarah K. L. Wilson loves spinning a yarn and if it paints a magical new world, twists something old into something reborn, or makes your heart pound with excitement ... all the better! Sarah hails from the rocky Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario -
learning patience and tenacity from the long months of icy cold - where she lives with her husband and two small boys. You might find her building fires in her woodstove and wishing she had a dragon handy to light them for her.
Sarah would like to thank Harold Trammel, Eugenia Kollia, and Sarah Brown for their incredible work in beta reading and proofreading this book. Without their big hearts and passion for stories, this book would not be the same.
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Dragon School Reading Order:
Dragon School: First Flight
Dragon School: Initiate
Dragon School: The Dark Prince
Dragon School: The Ruby Isles
Dragon School: Sworn
Dragon School: Dusk Covenant
Dragon School: First Message
Dragon School: Warring Promises
Dragon School: Prince of Dragons
Dragon School: Dark Night
Dragon School: Bright Hopes
Dragon School: Mark of Loyalty
Dragon School: Dire Quest
Dragon School: Ancient Allies
Dragon School: Pipe of Wings
Dragon School: Dragon Piper
Dragon School: Dust of Death
Dragon School: Troubled War
Dragon School: Bitter Darkness
Find them all on their Amazon series page.
Why Novellas?
I love watching television series. I don’t really like movies, because they’re simply too short of a story arc for me. I prefer long, drawn out stories in smaller, bite-sized episodes. Dragon School is my book version of the television dramas that I love. I’m writing the type of series I want to read – long and rich but with short episodes I can read in a single evening. I hope that you’ll enjoy this format as much as I do. I am planning approximately twenty episodes (we’re almost there!) for the first season. The first season will be a complete, self-contained story.
There is a second season planned for 2019 that will continue in the same world and timeline with a new main character and dragon. Many of the beloved characters from Dragon School will pop in and out of the story, so you won’t miss them too badly. Stay tuned for Dragon School: Chameleon!
Dragon School: Starie Night Page 7
